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Heinz Abetz Blog Entry |
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February 28, 2025, 12:00:18 AM February 28, 2025, 12:00:29 AM February 28, 2025, 12:00:40 AM 2/28/25: r/SketchDaily theme, "Free Draw Friday." This week's character from my anthro WWII storyline is Heinz Abetz, sans headwear (top drawing), with helmet (middle drawing), and with field cap (bottom drawing). He's the first husband of Else (Dannecker) and father of their four kids (Margarethe, Christof, Bernhard, and Tanja). He's killed in combat early on; later the widowed Else meets Ernst Dannecker and...well...things go downhill. There'll be more about him later in my art Tumblr and Toyhou.se. Regarding his design, he's a Pomeranian, thus his rather childlike looks. TUMBLR EDIT: All righty. I believe I've mentioned Else's late first husband in passing before, and by necessity he's been in the background of the story for ages now, though until a week or so ago he did not have a name and wasn't intended to as he never appears in the main story. I figured, however, he should have a name, as Else herself, and her kids, have this name before Else runs into Dannecker--literally--and the commandant starts his skeezy mission of winning her over so he can get at her teenaged daughter Margarethe. Who is the father of these kids? Dannecker himself makes reference to stepdaughter Gret's nameless father in a WIP I can't quote at any length. CAUTION that the following quote, despite me removing the speech/action tags, is disturbing: ... ... ... "Remember our agreement, pretty Gret. This is our nice little secret, our good little thing. Just between father and daughter. Or else straight to my camp. I'm an SS-Obersturmbannführer, and your mother and you kids are nothing, just the refuse some poor rutting little soldier left behind him before he died in the dirt. No one would miss any of you. Obey me, though...and none of you will ever want for anything again. They'll be my little princes and princesses and you'll be my little queen. Only if you're a good girl. Bis bald, little Gret." ... ... ... And here is another part, again mildly edited for content, where Dannecker is about to show Gret around the camp headquarters, including to the hidden passage where he once victimized her yet she then uses to help Diamant escape. Nothing untoward happens in this scene, but considering the company she's in, Gret has good reason to be anxious, and to long for the protection of her father: Dannecker looped his arm around hers and they headed up the hallway, footsteps echoing as they drew further away from all the business going on elsewhere in the building. She peered up at him, once only; he looked back down at her and gave that smile again, that smile that looked so kind and indulgent to anyone else who looked at him and saw a good father, but which to her was snakelike and menacing and reminded her of something far different from a good father. She didn't look at him again and as far as she could tell he didn't look at her, though she knew he must be thinking of all the prospects that were open right now, prospects that she was willingly walking into. She briefly remembered her real father, who'd never been particularly attentive or doting toward her the way Dannecker was, yet he'd never done any of the other things her stepfather did, either. ... Although not especially loving or affectionate, her father had definitely been attentive to her mother, if the four living children, and several miscarried and one stillborn one, were any indication. This is pretty much the only info ever given about the Dannecker children's biological father: He was a low-ranking infantryman who was interested enough in their mother to keep her pregnant much of the time, yet never showed much fatherly instinct, and died in combat. Not a horrible person like Dannecker, yet not a very great person either. Else obviously mourns the loss, though she also mourns Dannecker--she's pretty much the only one who does. Everything points toward Else being far more invested in the marriage than the newly named Abetz. I rather wanted to illustrate how of course not every marriage is based on love; in this time period, I imagine many poorer people engaged in marriages of convenience. Given that Abetz doesn't seem to have been terribly interested in playing father to his own kids, why then would he get married and have so many of them? I toyed with the possibilities a bit recently, it must have been while updating a character profile as it isn't in any recent blog writeups. I stopped short of coming right out and stating the most obvious reason two people like Else and Abetz end up together. I'm still not 100% sure, but given the circumstances--Abetz really does not seem emotionally invested in Else--I have to suspect that he unintentionally gets her pregnant after a casual encounter. Oops. Bailing out is always an option, but I also suspect extended family on both sides looks on with deep frowns, so he steps up and the two are married. Else is the sort who always needs a man to lead her, she feels lost on her own, and she falls hard and fast for whoever merely smiles at her in kindness--all traits that the psychopathic Dannecker picks up on immediately and puts to good use. So, she's happy to be married, even if it's done for convenience and in haste. Abetz, meanwhile...well, he's not nearly as thrilled. But he's not a total scumbag, plus, having a wife means he can get certain urges out of the way. That's crass, yes, but it's just how he is. :/ So of course Else starts having kid after kid. She doesn't mind--she's always longed to be a mother and have a lot of children, she just never had the means or opportunity. Her and Abetz's mistake is the best thing to happen to her. Abetz never cared for a family, but what can you do. He mainly leaves the childrearing up to her. I don't know how he makes money; it's enough to get by, though just barely, and the little family is always struggling. So he's rather bitter and resentful to be stuck in such a situation, and I wouldn't be surprised if he smacks Else and cuffs his kids once in a while, so the latter learn to keep a bit of distance, though Else is as devoted as always. He never devolves into being a total brute, he never beats her, and he's the breadwinner, and wonder of wonders!--he never cheats on her, he comes home every night--that's all she could ever hope for. Her expectations are pretty low. As the kids get a bit older, however, Abetz does finally find something else (no pun intended) to focus his attention on, and starts spending more time away from home. Another woman?...no...though maybe it would've been better for Else if it was. Abetz comes across a rally one day and listens, entranced; he marches to the nearest recruitment office and collects an armful of propaganda. He's smitten. He signs up, qualifies, and is given his own membership number, a brown uniform, and a nice red armband. Abetz's shiny new mistress is the NSDAP. He becomes a card-carrying Nazi. Else has no real opinion on this--she's rather, well, she doesn't have a lot going on upstairs, she makes Magda Jäger look bright. All she knows is her husband isn't home as often :( yet now, having a big family is a GOOD thing! :D Being a good Aryan mother with four children, Else meets the Party's requirements for something called the Cross of Honor of the German Mother, and this earns her a few little benefits--anything helps. Abetz beams when she's awarded the pretty medal, and she feels glowy all over for making him proud. Then Germany thinks it'd be a slick move to invade their ally, the Soviet Union. Of course that's not a slick move. The Soviet Union may be full of "Untermenschen" but the Red Army is HUGE, and Germany just poked the bear. Abetz isn't afraid; it's his opportunity to serve the Fatherland. He willingly joins the Wehrmacht, goes through the training, and heads off to the Eastern Front. And not long after, is gunned down and falls dead in the mud. Else receives notice, gets widow's benefits, anything helps, but what she wants most is her Heinz, she's lost without him. She weeps inconsolably as she clutches his Party uniform. Maybe if he'd taken a real mistress they'd all be better off, but now she's a mother of four young children on her own. She's forced to start doing everything for herself, and that includes earning what little bit of money she's allowed, as the same Party that granted her her medal frowns heavily on women in the workplace. She takes stray jobs mending and washing clothes, women's work, not too objectionable...not too lucrative either...but anything helps, when you have four young mouths to feed. Else struggles along with her little family as the war that took her husband rages and the economy suffers. She takes her children with her everywhere she goes as she can't afford a nanny. She goes to the shops and fills her little bag with necessities, food to help them grow, keep them healthy. Her children are all she has. She hurries along the street, bustling her children along, rounds a corner, runs smack into a man so hard she knocks him down. Pushing herself up, her groceries scattered, she sees him grimace and shake his head--he's in uniform, has the red armband, but even more, his cap and collar have the Totenkopf--his other collar tab has four pips and a stripe--Else starts trembling even before his head pops up, eyes livid and lip curling back to show his teeth--this isn't a simple soldier like her husband, this is an officer, a Schutzstaffel officer, and he looks pissed. The officer barks, "Watch where you're--!" And then cuts himself off, eyes widening. He's staring right at Gret, standing just behind her mother. But Else doesn't notice. She's too busy hastening to pick up his scattered papers, apologizing profusely, before trying to help him up, saving her own groceries for last. The officer still seems disgruntled by the time she's done but at least he doesn't yell at her again, just mutters at her to mind where she's going, and she promises, and hurries her children along. She's relieved beyond measure that he doesn't follow, that she and her family have escaped harm. For today, at least. She doesn't notice the way he stares after them as they go, how Gret turns her head to peer back at him, how the two of them lock eyes. She has no way to know that the next time she runs into him, it's completely planned: He looked her up, learned all about her family, asked around, learned all of her daily habits, where and when she comes and goes. He knows everything about her. She knows nothing about him...except that this time, he smiles at her in kindness, and Else's heart does a flip. She never thought she could again feel the way she felt for her beloved Heinz...but Dannecker quickly and easily wins her over. He's somebody important! Has a good job! He's well off--has his own house! He's a bachelor--and interested in her--in HER! And he loves her children! He spoils Gret especially. Else never stands a chance. Abetz isn't meant to play any major role in anything. His purpose in the story is to be somebody unimportant, insignificant, ultimately forgettable. Because the majority of people are just that. He steps briefly on the stage, plays his part, is forgotten, the world goes on. Dannecker is nearly an exact opposite, though the two do share a similar fate, in that they both abruptly exit life, and Else is really the only one to even care that they're gone. At the very least, though, Abetz doesn't try to destroy his own family the way Dannecker does. So...that's one small good thing about him, I guess. [Heinz Abetz 2025 [Friday, February 28, 2025, 12:00:18 AM]] [Heinz Abetz 2025 2 [Friday, February 28, 2025, 12:00:29 AM]] [Heinz Abetz 2025 3 [Friday, February 28, 2025, 12:00:40 AM]] |